Room 210, Tuesday Morning

[smilestopscars]

Ezra'd been gone for a couple of days.

Some Coterie stuff to deal with right after the break. And some quality time with Lock and Ava –– separately, because apparently they'd cycled back to being very weird around each other right now. Sigh, it was such a hassle. Why couldn't they think of their kid Ezra? So inconsiderate. He didn't want two Christmases.

Anyway. He was back now, unpacking his bag, its contents currently strewn all over his bed. And, well. It would've probably been easy to tell what he was unpacking was not entirely what he'd left with. The battered paperback copy of A Tale of Two Cities was perhaps his, sure. All the clothes, too, of course.

But no one needed six wallets.

[ooc: Open door, open post. ETA: NSFWness in the Dante thread!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

There'd been a lot of stuff that needed sorting out after that whole mess yesterday. Not of the 'DEMONS ATTACKED ME' variety - that was SNAFU material. But the whole thing where apparently whoever was sending these portals wasn't terribly discriminate about dragging in whatever happened to be near him.

That was gonna be a problem.

And while Dante had no clue if telling Alana or Isabela would be necessary - he didn't see them that much, and they seemed like the kind of people who would actually run when he told them to, and they didn't have powers anyway - Ezra was, unfortunately, a no-brainer.

So he showed up in Ezra's doorway halfway into the morning, looking uncharacteristically subdued as he leaned against the frame as he rapped on the door with his knuckles.

[smilestopscars]

By that time, Ezra had actually managed to clear the clothes and books and things off to where they belonged. Now he was just sitting on his bed going through the wallets. As you do.

"Aww, are you the welcome wagon?" he asked as he looked up. Then eyed Dante over without being too obvious about it. Something already seemed off.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I need to talk to you," Dante said. "I'm gonna try to keep it short, because it's depressing as fuck."

And neither of them were particularly fond of that.

[smilestopscars]

Oh.

Ezra made a face. Wrinkled his nose, the whole thing.

"Well, out with it, darling." It was so boring to wait for depressing things. The faster they were done the faster the repressing could begin, if you asked him.

[rebelseekspizza]

"So," Dante said, "My world is overrun with fucking demons, they live in this other plane called Limbo, they basically rule the world, and they've been hunting me since I was a kid. About a month ago, I found out they can drag me back home through the fucking portal system, and yesterday, I found out they don't really give a shit if that means grabbing whoever the fuck is standing within five feet of me at the time."

He shrugged. "Do with that what you want," he said.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra just barely raised his eyebrows. "Huh."

Yes. 'Huh'.

"Well, I guess I should go back to keeping knives on me."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante gave another shrug with just the one shoulder, which barely betrayed any hint of a relief. (But the relief was there.)

"If it does happen, just do as I say," he said. "Kathy and Anders got into a ton of shit trying to play hero yesterday."

His world wasn't one where you played hero and got away with it.

[smilestopscars]

"Oh, I never play hero." Sometimes he did good things. But he never attempted to be a hero. (There was an edge to his faintly amused tone when he said that, in fact.) "Are they okay?"

If Kathy had been horribly mauled, Ezra would've expected Dante to lead with that, honestly.

[rebelseekspizza]

"In shock, but nobody got hurt." Except for Dante, but again: Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. "Kathy's hot for some distraction right now."

Y'know, if she stopped by Ezra's or something.

[smilestopscars]

"Well, I'm always good for that." More that than most kinds of emotional support. Or at least distraction was all he'd actually own up to. "Are you okay?"

Checking.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante pushed away from the doorframe. "I'm fine. I'm used to it," he said. "Anyway, that's the depressing shit over with."

Thank God.

[smilestopscars]

"Thank goodness, I'd hate to wallow in the depressing for too long." Surprising no one. "I feel it usually threatens to flatten my hair."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Right?" Dante said, as he contemplated whether or not he should make this up to Ezra right now or not. "That'd be a national fucking tragedy. And a waste of good time."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra himself smoothed a few bills before sticking them in the one wallet that actually belonged to him.

"And it's a crime to waste good time."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snorted, faintly amused.

"That mean I should get outta here?" he said.

[smilestopscars]

"That, my little dumpling, as always, is up to you," Ezra told him easily, tossing a newly-emptied wallet into the small pile of assorted junk on the floor by his bed. He'd clean that up once he was done gutting his loot for things to keep. "I won't say no to company, but I'm not about to tackle you if you try to leave."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I dunno. Might be fun if you tried." Though heh. 'Dumpling'. Did Ezra just have a list of weird nouns to use for people, or what?

He watched Ez for a couple seconds more. Kathy had kind of worn him out last night. On the other hand, he could always use a distraction himself.

And on the other other hand, his depressing shit had been very depressing.

So he said a mental fuck it and stepped into the room.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra's endearments were 70% food-based, 30% other.

He watched Dante enter the room, and smirked a little bit. "Doesn't look like I'll be trying."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I like to keep things as hard as they need to be," Dante said, kicking the door shut behind him. "Whacha got, anyway?"

[smilestopscars]

"I was in Boston for a few days," Ezra replied lightly. "I have souvenirs."

Other people's stuff, that was. Wallets, a few watches.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante walked over to the bed, glancing over. "You did a lot of shopping," he said, just as lightly. "Trust you to run a discount."

[smilestopscars]

"I had to make sure my fingers stayed nimble." Plus it had been a job that had required them to be out in the open. Stealing kept his stress levels down. "No use letting them get rusty when so many people depend on them to do things."

[rebelseekspizza]

"So it's like a public service," Dante said, amused. He sat down on an empty space on the bed.

[smilestopscars]

There was a decent amount of it now.

"Exactly." And Ezra could be efficient in getting more things sorted and on to their respective piles. "I'm sure Kathy will thank me, for one."

[rebelseekspizza]

Hey, that meant he could stretch his legs a little. "Definitely," Dante said, "If last night is anything to go by."

Which was by far and away the preferable part of yesterday to talk about.